KRUPP’S.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 1, 2 January 1915, Page 7

KRUPP’S.

There is one German name that, since the outbreak of the war—and for many years past whenever the German Army has been mentioned—has been constantly on men’s lips. That is Krupp’s. So writes G.V.W. in the London “Daily Mail.” “People are wondering how far the world-famous Krupp works at Essen are distant ‘from the line of advance of the Allied armies. If airmen could sally out and destroy the vast hive of industry which has given Germany her mighty siege guns, her deadly field-pieces, her innumerable quickfirers— “Krupp’s has been called the Army und Xavy Stores of ‘the nations. Essen is Krupp’s; Krupp’s is Essen. The erstwhile little Westphalian town has become one gigantic factory dominated by the genius of this one family' whose three generations built up the greatest cannon and armor industry the world has ever seen. Looking down on the town from one of the pleasant, wooded heights on which Alfred Krupp planted the colonies for aged or disabled veterans of industry, one sees a forest of tall

chimneys and dozens of lingo, lofty workshops marshalled like forts all round the habitations of men. On a* nearer approach one discovers that , .some sixty factories make np this gigantic organisation. Forty miles of standard railway link them together, and carry their products abroad to the great world, and 50 miles of narrow lines are required as auxiliaries for the shops. From the distance resounds the dull boom of the gups from the testing ranges at Meppen, where artillerymen, year in, year out, are trying new weapons or experimenting with the resistance of anno, plate. ARMY CORPS OF WORKMEN. “Forty thousand men, with 400 j officials, make up the staff of tins maze of factories and workshops in I normal times. One can well believe j how the staff has been increased in . these anguishing days of war, when every German, great and small, rea- ' Uses that the future of his Empire largely depends on the power and number of guns which Krupp’s can place at the disposal of the armies o; Germany and her Austrian ally. Besides this army corps of workmen at J Essen, Krupp’s have 10,000 miners digging the earth for coal in the firm’s German collieries; 15,000 hands at the rolling-mills of Annen and Gru--1 sou, and the blast-furnaces of Kheinj hausen, Duisburg, Xeuwied, and En- ■ gers; about 7000 workmen at the,, , firm’s shipbuilding yard, the Ger. | mania, at Kiel, and 5000 ore miners in Spain. j “The private hotel maintained b\ the film at Essen for the accommo- , dation of its foreign visitors is characI teristic of the international character of the business done by Krupp’s Here, in days of peace, one met representatives of every civilised nation sent by their Governments to.this in ternational arsenal to purchase tin arms of war or the implements of peace. For half the Krupp works at Essen devoted to what in norma! times seems to be the peaceful work of commerce, but what in war time is an indispensable adjunct to the ar mies in the field. All that can hi made of steel for railways is con structed hero—wheels, axles, engine parts, and rails. At Essen the Ger man liners, now the murderous commerce destroyers of the Atlantic and Pacific and Indian Oceans, receive the huge castings for sternposf and stem and orank.slia.fts, and are furnished with plate and frames. Fine steel for, tools, the spades and picks o( troops entrenching themselves, and a dozen other varieties proceed fron. Essen. THE VEIL OF SECRECY. “But the foreigner, however impeacable his recommendations and references, only sees as much of Krupp’s as the firm will let him. Foreign

I military attaches, entranced at the exquisite courtesy, which is the rule of this famous house, have seen the high hopes built upon the warmth oj their welcome dashed to the ground when it has come to seeing over th> | workshops. They are hurried past | here and hurried past there, and finally leave with a vague sense of vast ness and method, hut conscious oi having signally failed to penetrate in ;to the secrets of the concern. A good example of the secrecy where with Krupp’s manage to envelop then j affairs is seen in the huge siege guns, the calibre of which rumor puts as high as 16in., with which the Hermans battered down the forts,of Liege and Namur. “It was to make a. finer steel chat Petere Friedrich Kmpp, the founder of the firm, a penniless inventor, experimented so painstakingly and an long a century ago. Ho discovered the secret of the crucible, hut i o , i! i not find how to cast steel blocks. A* his death his hoy Alfred, then If years of age, took up the work with faith and pertinacity, and on the development of the principle built up the present vast organisation. H was intellect and science applied to business that won him the victory. When all the money was swallowed up in experiments with crucible sved be hit upon a new principle for a roller wbjcb brought him in money for further experiments, and in time the secret was discovered. Tu the Marties he want ml to make enrm-m of cast steel, but failed. Then his inventiveness came to his help again and patented a money-making process for- turning out weldless railway tyres. It made the millions which

were spent in -developing (ho ivorf and in making the cannon which

eventually came into their own in the Franco-Prussian War.

“Though it is a joint stock company, in which practically all the shares are owned by Frau Krupp von Boh’c-u and Halbach, the only child of the late Alfred Krupp, the third proprietor, and her husband, the present managing director of the works, Krupp s is regarded by every patriotic German as a national possession. Wjn’o Krupp’s exists Germany will stand. That is the firm belief ef every member of this nation in arms,’'